Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Our favorite 3rd grandparents

Phil and Gayle Woody: who joined us for a Saturday joint birthday breakfast to celebrate the boys!! (We also invited another family, but they got ill and had to cancel.) Gayle brought a bin of hand me-down Legos and dinosaurs for the boys - brilliant!

Cinnamon rolls and applesauce and sausage, of course!

This is his Very Excited face.


Thank you, chef, for making these this morning!
 
After breakfast, a bit of time to play tee ball and enjoy the mild fall weather we have had so far. Our Japanese red maple (in the background) turned a bright magenta this season and was beautiful.



After using the tee balls, Mattias insisted on trying with the basketball.

Monday, November 28, 2016

Mattias is 2!

[Whoops, sorry to Mattias, I forgot to post these photos since I hadn't been on the computer for a while! That's what happens when you have a smartphone and start doing more from there.]

Mattias turned 2 years old, wow! On Friday, Oct 28th. After our regular breakfast we let him open all his presents. (As you can tell by the darkness outside, this was just before daylights savings so it was still dark even until 7:30 AM.) He then spent most of the morning hauling his new suitcase from Nonna around the house, finding cars and stuffed animals and blankets to put in and out. Perfect.

At two years old, Mattias...
  • loves pushing a stroller or pulling a wagon on our walks
  • loves trains, either the small trains at the library table or our Lego trains
  • loves other cars and trucks and will happily concentrate playing with 1 or 2 for a long time
  • favorite times of day: "porridge!" and cereal and banana for breakfast at 7 AM; wrestle time with Daddy after supper. He is pretty tough and a good snuggler, and has just figured out to jump with two feet at the same time
  • has recently starting initiating hugs and kisses, or wrapping his arm around Timo's neck for a hug.
  • is still quiet and reserved in groups or with new people, but once he warms up, he gets chatty and has the cutest grin, especially when he's trying to get someone to play peek a boo with him.
  • has definite ideas about how he likes things, whether what snack bowl he wants or which shoes or which spoon, etc.
  • can swing a bat and hit balls off the Tee. Quite impressive.



Friday was also the day of Western's Homecoming Weekend Parade, which goes four blocks down Main St in Sylva. A festive birthday evening celebration for him, with trucks and floats and the marching band and lots of candy being tossed to the kids.

We saw Steve and Ling (Jim's boss), and sat with them for the parade.

Listening intently to his Happy Birthday song (that's a chocolate peanut butter rice crispy treat).




Sunday, November 13, 2016

Timo turns 4 years old

As he very proudly tells our friends and neighbors, "I'm getting bigger! Look how big I am. I'm still a big brother. I'm four years old."

Since his birthday was on a Tuesday this year, we had a normal breakfast and opened cards and a couple of presents with Jim there, and then for our morning activity I packed a picnic lunch and let Timo decide what he wanted to do. He chose a hike! We walked along a trail in the hills next to Western's campus, and had the trail to ourselves. It was peaceful and beautiful, and they had a great time. Afterwards we took our lunch to a nearby coffeeshop and I treated myself to a hot chai and Timo was given a free cookie for his birthday! I was amazed at how well-behaved the boys both were; it was such a great morning together.

Running ahead (of course)



 After dinner it was time for desert!

birthday cupcakes with dinosaurs

It was great to have Erin and Luke and Isaac come over to play and join in for cupcakes and some presents. It really made the day to have them with us!!


Even though it was dark, of course the boys all wanted to dig outside!

Recent boys

And a couple more shots of the boys of late, having fun making piles and building a train and other Lego creations. They both love the same things right now and happily play together (with frustrations too, but the good moments outweigh the conflicts). Our mornings have been chilly, so we've been playing at home a bit before getting out and about to the park or trail in the later morning when it's warm.




Online attempt

Timo suggested, "I can read Mattias a book before he goes down to nap."

Trying to see if I can do a post from my phone... How does it look?